The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-02-10
DR. TALMAGE.
sPnlars of Smoke" the Subject Of
Bis Last Sermon
An Indication OF the Suffering and Perss-
oution the Church Of God Has Endured
"A symbol OF It's Beauty and
Ultimate Triumph.

the sixth verse of the third chapter Of
Solomon's Song: "Who Is this that
cometh out Of the wilderness like pillars
Of smehei' he spoke as follows:
The architecture Of the smoke In won
drous, whether God with His finger curls
it into a cloud, or rounds it into q dome, or
points 1t into q spire, or spreads 1t in .
wing, or, as in the text, hoists It into
pillar. Watch it winding up from the
country farmhouse in the early morning,
showing that the pastoral industries have
begun, or see it ascending from the Chin
neys Of the city, telling OF the homes fed,
the factories turning out valuable fabrics,
the printing presses preparing book and
newspaper, and all the ten thousand wheels
In motion. On clear day this vapor
spoken Of mounts with such buoyancy, and
spreads such a delicate vail across the
sky, and traces such graceful lines OF
circle and semi-circle, and waves, and
losses, and sinks, and scars, and scatters,
with such af1uence of shape and color and
suggestiveness that II you have never
noticed it you are like q man who has all
his life lived in Paris and yet never seen
the Luxembourg, and all his life In Rome
and never seen the Vatican, and all his
life at Lockport and never seen Niagara.
Forty-four times the Bible speaks Of the
smoke, and It is about time some body
breaches a sermon recognizing this strange,
weird, beautiful, elastic, charming terrific
and fascinating vapor. Across the Bible
sky floats the smoke Of Sinai, the smoke Of
Sodom, the smoke of Al, the smoke Of the
pit, the smoke Of the volcanic hills when
God touches them, and in my text the glo-
rious church of God coming out Of the will
derness-like pillars Of smoke.
In the first place these pillars Of smoke
church OF God has endured What do 1
mean by the churchl Imean not build
ing, not a sect but those who in all ages
and all lands, and of all beliefs, love God
and are trying to do right For many
centuries the heavens have been black
with the smoke Of martyrdom. If set side
by side you could girdle the earth with the
fires of persecution, Rowland Taylor
burned at Hadleigh; Latimer burned at
Oxford; John Rogers burned at Smithfield;
John Hooper burned at Gloucester; John
Huss burned at Constance; Lawrence
Saunders burned at Coventry; Joan Of Arc
burned at Rouen.
ErotestaRts have sometimes pointed to
Catholics as prosecutors, but both Protest
ant and Catholic have practiced Infamous
crueltes The Catholics, during the reign
of Hunneric, were by Professionals put to
the worst tortures stripped of their cloth
ing, hoisted in the air by pulleys with
weights suspended from their feet; then
let down, and ears and eyes nose and tongue
were amputated, and red hot plates of iron
were put against the tenderest parts Of
their bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian, says Of
the State of Maryland: I'm the land
which Catholics had opened to Professionals
mass might not be said publicly; no Catho-
lie priest or bishop might utter mis- faith in
q voice Of persuasion; no Catholic might
teach the young. If the wayward child of
Paplst would but become an apostate the
law wrested for him from his parents q
share of their property. Such were the
methods adopted to prevent the growth Of
Popery."
Speaking Of Ireland, the same historian
says "Such priests as were permitted to
reside in Ireland were required to be reg
istered, and were kept like prisoners at
large within prescribed limits. All Papists
exercising ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, all
monks, friars and regular priests not then
actually IN parishes and to be registered,
were banished from Ireland under pain OF
transportation, and, on return, Of being
hanged, drawn and quartered.
Catholicism as we'll as Professionalism had
fits martyrs. 1t does seem as if when any
one SECT SOI COHpIcJ0 uOHludnCy III any
land the devil Of persecution and cruelty
took possession of that sect. Then see the
Catholics after the Huguenots See the
Gentiles after the Jews in Touraine, where
great pit was dug and fire lighted at the
bottom of the pit, and one hundred and
sixty Jewish victims were consumed. See
the Presby terrain parliament of England,
more tyrannical in their treatment of OPP
ponents than had been the criminal
courts; persecution against the Bap-
fists by Pedo- Baptists; persecution
of the Established Church against
the Methodist Church; persecution
against the Quakers; persecution against
the Presbyterians. Under Emperor Dio-
cletian IA 900 Christians were massacred,
and 700, 900 more Of them died from Danish
ment and exposure. Witness the sufferings
of the Waldenses, of the Albigenses, Of
the HISTORIANS; witness St Bartholomew
massacre; witness the Duke Of Alva
driving out Of life 5000 Christians; wit
ness Herod and Nero, and Decius, and
Hildebrand, and TorQuemada and Earl of
Montfort and Lord Claverhouse, who,
when told that he must give account
for his cruelties, said: Il have no need to
account TO man, and as for God, l will take
Him in my own hands"
A red lineruns through the church his
tory of nineteen hundred years-a line of
blood. Not by the hundreds Of thousands,
but by the millions must we count those
slain for Christ's sake. No wonder John
Milton put the groans Of the martyrs to an
immortal tune, writing:
"Avenge, Lord Thy slaughtered saints,
whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold"
The smoke Of martyrs homes and mar
tyrs' bodies, if rolling up all at once,
would have eclipsed the MONDAY sun and
turned the brightest day the world ever
saw into midnight. Who is this
that cometh up out Of the wilderness like
pillars Of smoke?'
Has persecution ceasedi Ask that man,
who is trying to be- Christian, in store
or factory, where from morning to night
he is the butt of all the mean witticisms Of
unbelieving employees. Ask that wife,
whose hus band makes her fondness for the
house of God and even her kneeling prayer
by the bedside derision, and is no more
fit for her holy companionship than filthy
crow would be fit companion for robin
or golden oriole. Compromise with the
world and surrender to it's conventional
ties and it may let you alone, but all who
will live Cody in Jesus Christ must suffer
persecution. Be theater- going, card
playing, wine-drinking, round-dancing
Christian, and you may escape criticism
and social pressure; but be an up-and-
down and out-and-out follower of Christ,
and wording will wink to wording as he
speaks your name, and you will be put in
many doggerel and snubbed by those not
worthy to black your Oldest shoes.
When the bridge at Ashtabula broke and
let down most of the carload OF passengers
to instant death Mr.. P. P. Bliss was